It Takes a Community to Feed a Community!
October is Farm to School Month, an annual 31-day campaign to acknowledge, appreciate and celebrate the connections between families and their food systems. Although this year is the 10th anniversary of National Farm to School Month, celebrations look a little different!
Show Thanks
Farm to School Month is a time to honor and appreciate all those who contribute to feeding our kids and communities – from growers and farm workers, harvesters and distributors to nutrition professionals, educators, garden and food shelf coordinators, bus drivers, volunteers and more! They are all essential in providing healthy, nutritious meals to our communities.
Virtual Farm Tours
Minnesota Ag in the Classroom is partnering with Midwest Dairy to host a series of free Virtual Field Trips in October. Students and classrooms are invited to tune in for virtual farm tours and meet the farmers who provide fruit, vegetables and more to Minnesota school cafeterias. At home or in the classroom, you can plan meals featuring local food highlighted in the weekly tours.
All Virtual Field Trips will occur at 10 a.m. Dates and locations:
- Tuesday October 13: Revol Greens, Owatonna, MN
- Thursday October 22: New Roots Produce Farm, Morehead, MN
- Thursday October 29: Ahlgren Dairy Farm, Central MN
For more information and to register visit: https://minnesota.agclassroom.org/educator/virtual.cfm
Give Back
The pandemics we’re facing bring additional challenges to our communities. Here are a few things you can do as a family to support a healthy food system:
- If you can, donate healthy food or other resources to your local food shelves.
- Ask your neighbor if you can pick anything up for them on your next grocery run!
- Color a “Thank You” card from our Merch shop and send it to a local farmer, grocer, food shelf coordinator, school staff or other food system hero!
- Set aside time before each meal to express gratitude for the work that went into bringing the food to your plate.
- Schedule a visit or order delivery from a local farmers market vendor to support community growers.
Learn More
The food system is SO big and there is so much to learn! Start a conversation with your family about where food comes from and find out how it got from there to here. Check out the post “So our food isn’t grown in a grocery store?” to get started! For more ideas on how to incorporate lessons into the classroom, visit Minnesota Ag in the Classroom.
